After Merry and Pippin encounter the Ents in Fangorn Forest, they are taken to the Entmoot
where they decide to go to war with Isengard but what if they didn’t?
[INTRO]
It was finally time. The Ents had finally made their decision and so, Treebeard approached
the Hobbits. They felt this whole thing was rather positive and the decision they had
reached was one they were hoping for. “We have ultimately decided, this war is
not ours.” said Treebeard. Merry and Pippin’s excited expressions disappeared
immediately, as if all hope was never present to begin with and turned into confusion, anger
and utter disappointment. “What do you mean you’ve decided it’s
not yours?! All of Middle-earth is relying on you! They’re playing their part, so you
should play yours.” cried Merry. “You are just too small to understand. Nobody
cares for the forest anymore. So why should we care for anybody else?”
“Oh, we understand all right... Come on, Pip. We’ve wasted enough time here.”
Merry turned around and began walking. Pippin began too and then starred back at Treebeard
and the other Ents behind him and continued onward with Merry.
The two continued on through the forest but they couldn’t help but feel like they too
are as guilty as the Ents should be for not doing their part. Pippin stopped.
“Pip, what’s wrong?” “I can’t help but think about what’s
about to happen to Frodo and Sam and the Shire and everything we care about.”
“I know! I agree. But what can a hobbit do to persuade an ent?”
Pippin dropped himself down on a nearby tree stump and began to cry. “It’s all my fault…
If I had somehow managed to convince them, we’d be marching off to Isengard. If it
weren’t for me, back at the Mines, we wouldn’t have been found and Gandalf may have never
left us, and Boromir might still be alive…” Pippin thought to himself for a moment and
he finally was able to muster the courage that he needed.
“Look, we can’t just turn back to the Shire now. We’re part of the Fellowship
and we need to do our best for Frodo.” Treebeard, overhearing this, turned to the hobbits with
excitement. “The Shire?” He said with a fair amount
of confusion. “I have heard rumours of the Entwives, wandering near the Old Forest, if
I am not mistaken, that is near to your homes?”
“Yes, I believe so.” said Merry. “Well then, come now, young Hobbits, Gandalf
told me to keep you safe, so safe is where I’ll keep you.”
“So does that mean you’ve decided to go to war with Isengard?” replied Pippin, with
a sudden look of relief that just as quickly disappeared.
“No, as I have told you, it is not our war to fight. I will take you to the northern
borders of Fangorn, and from there you will take the Pass of Caradhras back to your home
in the north.”
That night the two hobbits, closely watched by Treebeard, slept under the stars, and the
dark boughs of Fangorn Forest. For when dawn was upon them, they were to depart and begin
their long journey home.
Early the next morning Merry awoke to find Treebeard stood, much like the night before,
upright gazing into the chaos of the old woods. “Pippin. Pippin!” He whispered. “Would
it be better for us to slip away quietly without Treebeard noticing?”
Treebeard, overhearing this, turned towards the halflings, all limbs creaking and fingers
cracking. “Don’t be hasty master halfling. You could
not find your way here without the guide of Gandalf, so I find it highly unlikely that
you would find your way back to your home under the hill so far north-east.” With
that, Treebeard stretched out his long weathered fingers and grasped both hobbits, one in each
hand.
Long and uneventful was their march back to the northern tip of Fangorn, and they had
almost nothing to do, other than gaze at the uninhabited wasteland that lay between the
Misty Mountains and the western borders of Mirkwood, and they had heard many tales from
Bilbo of the horrors that dwelt in there. They sat on the twisted bark on the shoulders
of Treebeard, and every once in a while, they slept up against the long branches that extend
from them. Merry’s face mirrored what he felt in his
heart. Guilt. Guilt for leaving Frodo and Sam, and the rest of the Fellowship to an
unknown doom. “Merry! Do you think there is any hope?
For Frodo and Sam?” said Pippin with a deep sense of dread.
“There never was much hope Pip, but if Sauron had the ring I think we would know about it.”.
Treebeard shuddered at the mention of the Dark Lord’s name, he remembered a time when
a power darker than Sauron opposed the freedom of Middle-earth, but he wished no such power
had ever existed.
Finally, on the third day since the start of their march from the entmoot, had they
reached the northern border of Fangorn. And Treebeard laid both hobbits to sleep behind
a fallen tree and under the cover of another. However, this movement had stirred them, and
they were both now wide awake and were glad to feel the wind, and hear the sound of the
Anduin close by. “It is here I must leave you, and return
to my kin deep in the forest. I bid you farewell.” said Treebeard.
“Wait!” shouted Merry “If you ever come across a ranger, Aragorn he is known more
commonly as, tell him that Merry and Pippin made it home safely, and if he’s ever travelling
near the Shire, then he is always welcome to share a pint with us in the Green Dragon.”
he continued, with a tone of sadness slightly invading his voice.
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you farewell!